Hey, so I took a short break from Streets of Passion to work on this other game, Wardens of the Iron Garden. I wouldn’t call it Forged in the Dark. Probably more in common with lady blackbird. I’ve attached it here.
But I wanted to talk about the modified stress mechanic, because I want to use it in my other game (streets of passion). In Wardens, I decided to remove vices. Rather than replace it with something else, I opted to make stress unremoveable, and I bolted on the marks mechanic from Night Witches. Traumas are now rolled up into the marks. In our first playtest session, someone already maxed out their stress. What do you think of this? Too finite?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12WBVAiZICNvm3_g2cVZihX2gHIsj-B0k/view?usp=drivesdk
I really like the setting and special abilities. The change to stress and trauma/marks could be fine, bit it might take away some of the suspense of balancing stress and indulging vice.
Oh – I also really like cohorts as a special ability!
Im finding that the action-harm-trauma-stress-vice relationship in blades is like spinning a bunch of plates. Blades does it masterfully, but in other settings it’s hard to justify the existence of say, vice, when it doesn’t really fit with the tone of the game. I had replaced it with something else (I called it complications) but that doesn’t work either. I’m gonna keep thinking about this. Don’t mind me!
Remember that players, hell, humans will always seize on scarcity. If I were in your game, I’d be pathologically unwilling to take stress, and I’d avoid having it imposed on me any way I could.. You’ll end up with people like me and people going the other way who have the “play like a stolen car” philosophy, so you’ll have people cycling through characters VERY fast and maybe the other half not. How long do you intend your campaign to run? That’s really the biggest question. If it’s relatively short, people like me with a survivor complex will be short-changing their fun trying not to Trauma out; too long and the stolen cars will cycle through PCs and relationships will get lopsided. What player behavior do you want?
You make a good point, Rebecca. I have to re-examine that. I’m not sure if the setting lends itself to a long campaign or not.
I find the effects of stat “economies” and scarcity on player behavior fascinating. I feel everyone designing a game or hack should start by acknowledging that system design is going to directly manipulate player behavior, own it, and create the gameplay they want to encourage.
Why do you say it’s hard to justify Vice in other settings?
Levon Jihanian in my fantasy hack, I replaced vice with vanity. So, each character has an ego – in order to reduce stress they have to show off that they are the smartest, strongest, most party animalest, etc. Of course, they can overindulge and irritate people…
All you have to do is write three or four more of these kinds of games and you’ll have made Rifts playable 😉
I personally like the permanent stress mechanic, it feels like the wardens are playing hardball, which matches the setting and feel and the mechanic in a loop. I also like that a number of the powers and perks are just steadystate, you know when people are lying, you call backup, so forth, not roll and see. Like this little project
And the marks are a good background personal story clock, things building offscene. If you wanted to be nice you could put epiphany in twice, or another plus of some sort, as a way to encourage stress use
Exciting. Great flavor. Reminds me of the hard choices of Dogs in the Vineyard and setting like The Spire. The demon tables are cool for a nice unsettling variety.
I like the marks as a personal arc clock, but like Greg Barnsdale suggests, maybe one more not quite bad (but not quite good) thing, like promotion and greater rank/power within the regime.
I also like the rank dynamic between parties, with xp derived from following orders. Gives me a 3:16 vibe with quicker access to the juicy psychological horror aspects of that game which require longer play to access. This game pushes at those aspects and relational dynamics immediately. Is there any way for players to change numeric/rank designation?
I like the difference between soft and hard harm, but I personally find it terribly hard to remember the harm acronyms. Could they instead just be labelled 1-4 like “laze pistol (soft 3, hard 2)” or (S3, H2) or even 3 | 2.
I like a lot of things about this game. I like the modified stress mechanic. The scoundrels in Blades can be relied upon to bounce back (though it’s risky). The Wardens are being ground down over time. It’s grim stuff! You mention that a playtester maxed out stress in a single session, but I’m not sure that’s a problem per se. There are a lot of ways to be Marked, and being Marked is interesting. Obviously if it felt unfair or out-of-the-blue that might make the experience frustrating but I’m getting a very Grim and Perilous 40k cops vibe. This seems in alignment with that.
I also really like the way harm is handled, and the way the XP triggers can be at odds with each other, and with the player’s sense of morality.